Mercian H&H 7th October 2007
Words by Colin Jones and Pete Dunckley, Photos by Richard Lee
I was trying to wind Pete Dunckley up daring to criticise his less than F1 pit stop technique after an in depth analysis of his lap times and he replied: Ah, that rather longer than normal lap time?. Stopped for fuel, had a banana, bit of a chat with someone I know who berated me for having such a slow filler on my fuel can. When he saw me sat there eating a banana and having a chat he understood why having a quick filler would be a bit pointless. I prefer a more relaxed, laid back style of riding! Good to see my fastest lap was the last when I really got a rhythm going.
Bit gutted to see the results though!. I never saw an entry list beforehand but counted at least 10 trail bikes so assumed they must all be in the trail bike class. To find out there were only 3 entries and one of those was a DNS made it a bit of a sullied result. Never mind, I got a DVD out of it and I beat someone in every class and had a bit of fun and at least I can say "Got a second". I'll just mumble when people ask about the number of entrants in class.
I also had the chance to ride a lap on my CRM before setting up the timing system and found a good fast track with lots of cambered straights and turns with not too much nadgery and thought, this I going to test Pete's short wheelbase Pamp. Pete said: Yep, definitely not a Pampera course, that's for sure but hey ho, that's life. The old girl did well though and embarrassed a few Enduro and MX bikes which made me smile.
Hope the ride report brings a smile to a few club members.
you can read his full report on the TBM forum at http://www.trailbikemag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10322
There were many of our new club members out riding as so many joined the club for our Chicken Run HH, but out of our regulars: Phill Gardner just edged out Steve Biddle by 12 seconds on 13 Laps in the Experts, Tom Lee and James Wilden got 12 and 11 in the Clubman class, Steve Venn in the Vets did 11 as did Martin Howitt in the Sports class followed up by 16yr old Craig Ruck on 9. In the toughest class, Trail Bike, let's face it they are riding the wrong bikes! Rich Gwinnutt on his AJP 125 4 stroke got 9 laps in while Pete Dunckley on his Pamp dropped down to one less by relaxing!